The LSU Tigers (16-0; 1-0 SEC) have certainly had their fair share of the spotlight in recent years. The 2023 NCAA champion Tigers are enjoying their most successful stretch since the early 2000s, when they reached the Final Four in five consecutive seasons; LSU is currently ranked No. 6 in the country by the Associated Press and is once again regarded as one of the top teams in the highly-competitive SEC entering the new year.

It’s no coincidence that LSU’s rise has been on the backs of players who happen to be household names. Like Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles before them, Angel Reese (now in the WNBA) and Flau’jae Johnson are two of the most instantly recognizable players in the country, and while their social media presence is undeniably massive, it’s their production on the court that has led LSU back to prominence.

Add Aneesah Morrow to that list. The former DePaul Blue Demon transferred to LSU prior to her junior season to compete for a national championship, and her individual strengths as a player—namely, a relentless work ethic and undeniable physicality in the paint and on the boards—has further elevated how Kim Mulkey’s Tigers want to play: quickly and aggressively.

Now a senior, there are few areas of the game Morrow doesn’t impact. She’s rarely the biggest player on the court, but she almost never gets outworked, and it shows up in the stat sheet: Morrow has been described as a “double-double machine,” and recently moved into a tie for fourth place in NCAA history with 88 of them. Such numbers have understandably put her in WNBA Draft conversation, so let’s take a deeper look at Morrow’s credentials as a future pro.

Honors and statistics

Morrow’s status as a hugely productive player was cemented long before she arrived at LSU. She posted averages of 28.4 points, 14.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists as a senior in high school, leading Chicago’s Simeon to a state championship and earning lofty praise as a recruit by Prospects Nation and MaxPreps.

Morrow then burst onto the collegiate basketball scene as a freshman at DePaul, averaging 21.9 points and a Division I-leading 13.8 rebounds per game en route to USBWA National Freshman of the Year and All-Big East First Team honors. She stuffed the stat sheet again as a sophomore, ranking fourth in Division I in scoring (25.7 points) and sixth in rebounding (12.2 rebounds) while once again making her way onto the All-Big East First Team. Morrow also earned a nod as an All-American by the USBWA and Associated Press and was a finalist for the Katrina McClain Award, given to the best power forward in the country.

While Morrow hasn’t had quite as large of a role at LSU, she’s been no less impactful. In her first season with the Tigers, Morrow was named to the All-SEC First Team after averaging 16.4 points, 10 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game and powering LSU to an Elite Eight appearance in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. She was also a finalist for the Cheryl Miller Award (the small forward equivalent of the Katrina McClain Award) and was deemed an honorable mention All-American by the USBWA, WBCA and Associated Press.

Morrow’s relentless effort is reflected in her scoring and rebounding numbers

When describing Morrow’s game, almost everything stems from how hard she works. It goes without saying that a player isn’t going to put up the numbers Morrow does—she’s averaging 17.9 points, 14 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game thus far as a senior—with talent alone.

For Morrow, though, outworking her opponents is a given. At 6-foot-1, she’s often at a height disadvantage when competing against SEC frontcourts, but you wouldn’t know it from watching her play. Morrow has recorded a double-double in all but two of the games she’s played this season, and she’s currently leading Division I in rebounds per game; according to Synergy Sports, nearly a quarter of her offensive possessions (24.2 percent) are coming on putback opportunities.

She’s far from just a rebounding specialist, though. Morrow’s physicality on the boards may be akin to that of a bull in a china shop, but she also has the kind of offensive repertoire that makes her a problem for bigger players who can’t match her foot speed. The range on her jumpshot extends beyond the free throw line, and she can explode off the dribble in either direction, often resulting in drawn fouls at the rim.

“Morrow is a double-double machine,” commented Mulkey after a recent LSU win against Seton Hall. “She can shoot the 3-ball, [but] you don’t have to have her shoot the 3-ball … she can face you up as an undersized post player.”

Mulkey also praised Morrow’s defense, which may be an underappreciated part of her game. The same energy and nose for the ball that make her a force on the glass carry over to her work off the ball, where she’s averaged at least 2.5 steals per game in every collegiate season. Morrow may not have the height to be a consistent shot-blocker, but her aggressive presence on defense is felt nonetheless for an LSU team that’s posting a steal rate of 12.1 percent (Her Hoop Stats).

“That’s my mindset going into every game — that my teammates are going to be able to depend on me to score, and if not scoring then I have to do something else defensively,” Morrow said.

It’s not often, of course, that she isn’t scoring. Morrow is a key cog in LSU’s attack, and she’s posting career-highs in shooting percentage (52.9 percent) and free throw rate (16.3 percent) as a senior. She’s even made a handful of 3-pointers, which were a big part of her shot selection at DePaul but have been mostly discouraged at LSU.

Morrow’s level of production and collegiate pedigree have made her a popular choice on WNBA mock draft boards, where she’s frequently listed as being chosen in the first round. Her height as a frontcourt player may give WNBA teams pause, and they’ll need to be confident that she’ll be able to play more on the perimeter as a pro. Morrow’s motor and instincts are not in question, however, and the way she approaches the game at the collegiate level suggests that she’ll be a quick study wherever she lands.

Watch her play

LSU may have had a comfortable non-conference schedule, but things will get much more interesting in a hurry for the Tigers as they begin SEC play. They’ll take on No. 15 Tennessee on Thursday, Jan. 9 (SEC Network+) in what should be an exciting, high-scoring game. Later in January, LSU will play No. 2 South Carolina—a must-see rivalry game that will be televised nationally on ESPN.

Further down the road for LSU are key matchups against No. 9 Oklahoma (Jan. 30; ESPN2), No. 5 Texas (Feb. 16; ABC) and No. 16 Kentucky (Feb. 23; ESPN). How Morrow and the Tigers perform in these games will surely influence how they’re seeded in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, which will begin on March 19; ESPN’s Charlie Creme currently projects them as a No. 2 seed.

All statistics, team records and rankings for the 2024-25 NCAA season are current through Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025.

SEC play has tipped off, with Thursday, Jan. 2 serving as the launch date for what promises to be a competitive chase for the conference crowns.

South Carolina, LSU, Texas and Oklahoma, all ranked in the top 10 nationally, project to battle for the hardware. On opening night, the No. 2-ranked Gamecocks and No. 6-ranked Tigers both cruised to victories of more than 30 points, while the No. 5-ranked Longhorns persevered to take down the No. 9-ranked Sooners in the first SEC version of their Red River rivalry.

However, the conference is flush with talented players, and number of whom that, based on their performances in non-conference action, could prove capable of captaining their teams to upset wins over conference favorites. Keep an eye on these under-the-radar SEC stars during conference play:

Khamil Pierre (Vanderbilt)

Women’s college basketball’s analytics darling can be found in Nashville.

Sophomore forward Khamil Pierre puts up the kind of all-round, efficient performances that lead to eye-popping all-in-one metrics—and wins. She leads the nation in player efficiency rating (49.2), wins shares per 40 minutes (.509) and defensive rating (61.0). In the SEC, she’s also tops in box/plus minus (19.9). In short, her 23.1 points and 10.9 rebounds aren’t just good numbers, they are impactful numbers that have contributed to the Commodores’ 14-1 start to the season.

As Vandy routed Georgia in their conference opener, pouring in 108 points, Pierre posted 28 points and eight rebounds, and impressive output that was topped by the second half of the Commodores’ dynamic duo, freshman guard Mikayla Blakes. Her 36 points broke the program’s record for points scored by a freshman in a single game.

Tougher opponents await, and they’re sure to test Pierre’s ability to maintain her efficiency and effectiveness. But if she produces elite impact against Kentucky’s towering frontcourt (Jan. 5), Ole Miss’ grit (Jan. 9) and a stacked LSU squad (Jan. 13), she’ll be certified as an on-the-radar star. And Vandy will own an upset win or two.

DeYona Gaston (Auburn)

Photo by Stew Milne/Getty Images

On Jan. 16, when Texas invades the Plains of Auburn, expect grad forward DeYona Gatson to be prepared to give her former team a rude welcome.

Although less heralded than other transfers, Gatson has been one of the nation’s most effective—and most improved—newcomers, emerging as a near-double-double force for the Tigers. Already, she’s put up numbers that only Auburn legend DeWanna Bonner previously had sniffed, headlined by 35-point and 36-point games. Having averaged 10.4 points and 5.1 rebounds across her four season at Texas, she’s jumped to 23.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, all while shooting slightly more efficiently from the field. She’s also getting to the line almost seven times per game, an indication of her development into an offensive fulcrum.

All that was on display as Auburn took on Ole Miss in their SEC opener. Unfortunately, Gatson’s 30 points, which included 14 points from the foul line, was not enough for the Tigers, as a hot shooting night from the Rebels powered Ole Miss to a comfortable win.

The disappointing result, however, does not doom Gatson and the Tigers, who now sport a 9-5 record. Fellow transfer Taliah Scott (Arkansas) remains out with an injury, depriving Auburn of a second high-level scorer. When the sophomore guard returns, the Tigers should have the juice needed to improve upon last season’s seventh-place conference finish.

Samara Spencer (Tennessee)

Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Can a player who set a program record—and not any program record but a Tennessee program record—for made 3-pointers in a single game be considered under-the-radar? Samara Spencer certainly tests that proposition.

The senior guard, who is in her first season on Rocky Top after three seasons at Arkansas, has proven a perfect fit for new head coach Kim Caldwell’s high-powered offense. Not only is Spencer is shooting nearly 47 percent from behind the arc on more than five triples per game, but she also keeps the ball moving, averaging a career-best and team-high 5.6 assists per game. In Thursday’s SEC opener, when Tennessee took care of business against Texas A&M, Spencer occupied that facilitator role, tossing a game-high eight assists while scoring six points and grabbing five boards.

However, it is her 3-point shooting, with the potential for another onslaught like the 33-point one she unleashed on NC Central, that should scare SEC opponents. Her ability to ignite on any night not only can help the Lady Vols preserve their perfect mark, currently at 13-0, but also could result in Tennessee taking down one of the SEC’s titans. Sooner than later, Spencer will have opportunities to terrorize top opponents with triples, as Tennessee hosts Oklahoma (Jan. 5) and LSU (Jan. 9).

Liv McGill (Florida)

Photo by Matt Kelley/Getty Images

Following Paige Bueckers at Minnesota’s Hopkins High School is no small feat. But Liv McGill did just that. So, don’t expect the freshman guard to be deterred by a rookie season in Gainesville that has featured some rocky moments for a 9-6 Florida team.

One such moment came on Thursday. The Gators began SEC play against the No. 19-ranked Crimson Tide, with a slow start ultimately sinking youthful Florida against veteran Alabama.

But McGill, who led the Gators with 18 points on Thursday, is gaining experience through growing pains, showing the kind of flashes that suggest, while she may not emerge as a star this season, such a turn into the SEC spotlight is in her future. Through non-conference play, she led Florida in points (16.1), assists (5.3) and steals (1.9), while averaging a team-high 29.8 minutes per game. Although her shooting percentages have regressed after a relatively solid start, she doesn’t hesitate to take shots, willingly accepting her role as the engine of Florida’s offense. Yet, as her assisting numbers indicate, she’s not just an undisciplined gunner, but a developing steward of the Gator offense.

The ingredients are there for at least one explosive McGill game, when the freshman finds a groove and the Gators threaten to knock of a superior SEC squad.

Izzy Higginbottom (Arkansas)

Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images

The transfer portal mostly has flowed the wrong direction at Arkansas, with too many players with potential leaving Fayetteville (such as the above mentioned Samara Spencer and Taliah Scott) and not enough arriving. Senior guard Izzy Higginbottom, however, is the exception.

After a mostly quiet freshman year at Missouri, Higginbottom transferred to Arkansas State, blossoming into an offensive dynamo for the Red Wolves. And since returning to the SEC and her home state’s flagship school, she has maintained her high-scoring ways. After leading the Sun Belt in scoring last season with 22.2 points per game, she’s doing the same in the SEC, averaging 23.8 per contest, which is the fourth-best mark in the nation. Her scoring package gives off old-school vibes, with a strong preference for the midrange. Although only 5-foot-7, she shoots better than 50 percent on 2-point attempts.

Arkansas likely won’t win many conference games this season. In Thursday’s SEC opener, they were thrashed by LSU, sending their record to 7-9. But Higginbottom did her thing, scoring a game-high 27 points. Even as the Ls accumulate for Arkansas, expect Higginbottom to frustrate more than a few more talented opponents.

Marissa Kastanek is way more than a basketball player. That’s why we didn’t just talk hoops when she recently spoke to Swish Appeal. Born in Nebraska, she played at NC State (2009-13) before turning pro. Since 2015, she has been living in Poland, playing for Arka Gdynia beginning in 2019. She’s even played for the Polish national team.

Her upbringing taught her the importance of helping others, so she founded WISDOM Fellowship, which engages in various charity activities all over the world. She discussed that and more with Swish Appeal, including:

On worshipping God through sports:

Worship is how you live, how you thank God, how you use your gifts that you’ve been blessed with, in a way that will shine light onto God. When I say, “worshipping in sports”….a lot of us were given gifts of athleticism. I had to work hard to improve them, but I was given a gift by God and it was to be athletic, to be a hard worker. When God makes something, he wants it to do what he made it for. A bird is worshipping God when it’s singing and flying. A tree is worshipping God when it’s growing and has leaves. A dog is worshipping God when he’s running and playing and doing all of his fun stuff. And we are worshipping God by playing our sport to the best that we can.

On going to NC State instead of homestate Nebraska:

The coaches at Nebraska said I was too small and they didn’t necessarily want me. They said that I could come there, but I wouldn’t play that much, so I was like, “Why would I want to come there?” And that coach there later apologized to me, she’s not there anymore, she was like, “Man, we missed out.”….When I was being recruited, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) was in my opinion the best basketball conference in the country and I was getting recruited by many schools, but when I went to North Carolina for a tournament, there was Duke, NC State, North Carolina and Wake Forest, and when I stepped foot in North Carolina, the state, I was like: “Wow, this is amazing.”

A special thank you to Michał Piaskowski of VBW Gdynia for arranging the interview. Learn more about WISDOM’s work: https://www.wisdomfellowship.com/.

Seniors Jayda Curry and Olivia Cochran led the Louisville Cardinals to a strong win over Miami at the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday night, decisively closing out the Hurricanes, 74-56.

Curry thrilled the home crowd with a season-best 21 points, shooting 6-for-12 from the field, including 4-for-9 from 3. She and freshman guard Tajianna Roberts, who continued to prove she’ll soon be one of the most exciting athletes on the court, put on a show in the first quarter. The pair each scored six points in the period, propelling the team to a 23-14 lead at the quarter’s end.

Roberts then rocked the stadium in the second quarter when she landed her second 3 of the night, entered into double figures and pushed the team’s lead to 13 points. The Cards held the Hurricanes scoreless for the final three-and-a-half minutes of the second and went into halftime with a 43-27 lead. Roberts again delighted the crowd with her first steal of the night at the top of the third. Cochran then nabbed another steal that ended in a layup.

Curry roared to life in the third, scoring 12 of her 21 points as the Cardinals continued to lead 65-40. “It felt good,” she told Swish Appeal after the game. “One thing I emphasized to the team the other day was having a team where when we are hot, we feed the hot hand. Taj was super hot in the first half, and we all recognized that and made sure she got touches.”

“It was fun to be that excited,” she added. “It was fun to be back at the Yum and to be able to do that at home.”

In addition to Curry, Cochran and Roberts, senior Ja’Leah Williams was also a huge part of the Cardinals’ win and produced one of her most all-around nights this season with eight points, seven rebounds, seven assists and four steals against her former team. “The game was definitely different for me, especially being on the other side of things,” Williams said of playing her former team. “It was a fun experience for me, and it was great to know my teammates had my back.”

Williams additionally emphasized the importance of building on the team’s positive momentum, saying, “My main focus for the next game is to stay as consistent as possible. The past few games have been amazing for me individually but most importantly as a team. We want to keep working and making progress in practice, because the results are very good for us.”

Roberts echoed Williams, telling Swish Appeal after the game, “As a team, we’re starting to come together, and continuing to be better each and every game.” That was evident throughout, as the Cardinals still made mistakes—but they were new mistakes, showing that the team is testing skills and growing together, unafraid to make an attempt that might not pan out all the way…yet.

Roberts was also clear about her own areas for improvement and what she wants to work on before the team’s next game. “[That’s] mostly being active end to end, being consistent on offense, getting in the lanes more and being a defensive presence.” If there’s one area Roberts is looking to grow quickly in, it’s rebounding the ball more.

Curry also spoke about the team’s immediate future and direction of growth. “At the next game, we have to keep working on defense and being active. As a team, that’s the emphasis the past couple of days. We always get a lot of offensive threats, and if our shots aren’t falling, we focus on the defense because they’ll eventually fall.”

The Hurricanes were not without their own wins of the night. Haley Cavinder racked up a team-high 19 points and Cameron Williams almost hit a double-double with 12 points and nine boards. Hanna Cavinder and Jasmyne Roberts each nabbed five points, while Natalija Marshall brought in nine points of her own.

Louisville will play Wake Forest in Winston-Salem on Sunday (4 p.m. ET, ACC Network), and Miami is up against Virginia Tech at home on Sunday (12 p.m. ET, ACC Extra).

Joining a new conference is challenging for any college basketball team. But as No. 1 UCLA and No. 4 USC are finding this week, it’s an even bigger task to learn from the top.

Both schools, which became top 10 programs last season, joined the Big 10 this year, bringing the number of teams in the league to 18. Both the Bruins and Trojans survived the first serious tests of their new conference this week and passed with flying colors, defeating both No. 24 Michigan and Nebraska.

But each program had to quickly turn around and fly east to face more tough competition this weekend, as they handle the pressure to maintain their rankings. Coaches and players say they are ready for the storms.

“We’re excited for it…that’s what you want as competitors,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said Sunday, after her team downed the Wolverines. “This is a great league, and a lot of it is new for us.”

Gottlieb said she has watched Big 10 teams go deep into the NCAA Tournament every year, and is mindful that the growth of the conference now means squads face each other just once per season.

“We know we have to be ready, and we know it’s going to bring out our best, because they’re a bunch of NCAA Tournament teams,” she said. “We’ve got to rise up and play better, and we know it’s going to make us a better team playing in this conference.”

Michigan played the Trojans closely through the first quarter, and then chopped the 9-point lead they gained in the second down to 3 by intermission. It wasn’t until the end of the third period that USC ignited and went on a run, from which they never looked back in the 78-58 win.

Against the Bruins, the Wolverines switched to a zone defense in the third quarter, and were able to whittle down the UCLA lead to as little as 6 toward the end of the frame, largely behind freshman sensation Syla Swords, who dropped a career-high 30 points. The hosts had to step on the gas in the fourth period, and outscored their opponents 29-20 to close it out, 86-70.

Bruins coach Cori Close saw the game as a wake-up call for her team.

“I thought they out-toughed us tonight,” she said. “We may have talented pieces, but they won the toughness and togetherness battle.”

Close said UCLA needed more teamwork, and better defense.

“We have an immense amount of talent, but we have to decide if we want to win individual games, or if we want to win a championship. And that’s a decision we have to make right away.”

The undefeated Bruins, who took the No. 1 spot in late November after beating then-No. 1 South Carolina, faces Indiana at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall tomorrow, and Purdue on Tuesday.

“I’m really excited that we have such a tough opponent in a really hostile environment this next game, because if you want to keep winning, you better buck up,” Close said.

Michigan, who like USC has a lot of new faces this year, is also facing a crash course in learning quickly. Senior guard Greta Kampschroeder said she and the other veterans are doing their best to lead the way.

“A big thing we were talking about in the locker room was like, we’re going to have to grow up pretty quick. We have some new people that came in this past year … we’re not as experienced as we’ve been in the past,” Kampschroeder said.

Wolverines coach Kim Barnes Arico said she and her staff are trying to instill confidence in athletes.

“Just believe in yourself like we believe in you as coaches. I believe in you,” Barnes Arico said about her messages to the team. “As a program, we believe in you. You’re going to make mistakes, and you’ve got to be able to let them go and you’ve got to be able to move on, because we don’t want to be on this emotional roller coaster of living by every play. Basketball is a game of mistakes…let it go and move on and let’s just focus.”

Kiki Iriafen shoots over a defender. USC Athletics photo.

The Trojans, whose only loss was to No. 3 Notre Dame five weeks ago, will face Rutgers Sunday before traveling to No. 8 Maryland for a Wednesday tipoff. Gottlieb said with injured freshman Kennedy Smith back in the starting lineup, and All-American Juju Watkins in good form, the only way to go is up.

“We’ll continue to have high standards and expectations, while continuing to get better throughout the year,” Gottlieb said.

UCLA began Big 10 play last month, as they faced former Pac-12 opponent Washington, while USC handled another former Pac-12 conference-mate in Oregon. The longtime Southern California rivals will still face one another twice, for bragging rights in a series. Every other team, they will only play once.

“You better take advantage of your one shot,” Close said. “And we’re learning all these teams for the first time. If that doesn’t bring a sense of urgency to you.”

The Big 10 currently has 7 teams in the AP top 25 poll, with 4 of them in the top 10.

“We’re the new kids on the block; we’ve got the biggest targets on our backs,” Close said. We need to come in not just doing the scout, but dominating the scout. As you can tell, I’m fired up about this, because I do not want this team to settle for a lack of character.”

Close said time will tell – and quickly.

“This conference is going to reveal, and I hope our players do the work so they like what it shows about them,” she said.